The 6th International Congress of Neuroendocrinology (ICN 2006) is to be held June 19-22, 2006 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA, under the auspices of the International Neuroendocrine Federation (INF). The Congress is sponsored jointly by the American Neuroendocrine Society (ANS) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's (UPMC) Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences. ICN 2006 will be held in conjunction with the 10th Annual Meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN) and immediately precede the Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society (Endo 2006), which is to be held in Boston that year. The sequential arrangement of these three major meetings will provide a truly outstanding forum for international scientific exchange. The overall goal of ICN 2006 is to bring together both basic and clinical investigators in academia and industry, at all career levels, and from all parts of the world, interested in the integrative genomics (physiology) of neuroendocrine control systems to review and discuss recent advances in this field. Neuroendocrinology comprises a broad range of disciplines from genetics, molecular and cell biology, pharmacology, systems biology, and clinical trials, and this meeting hopes to include all of these aspects. Specific Aims of ICN 2006 include: 1) to use plenary lectures, symposia, platform, and poster sessions to cover neuroendocrinology in its broadest sense. 2) To provide workshops on contemporary molecular, genomic, and proteomic approaches to the study of neuroendocrine systems. 3) To provide support to enable young investigators (students and fellows) to attend ICN 2006. 4) To provide targeted support to enable investigators from less privileged parts of the world (Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia) to travel to Pittsburgh to participate fully in ICN 2006. 5) To hold a session open to cover "late breaking hot topics" in the field. Because neuroendocrine systems impact upon every aspect of human physiology and behavior, the congress will be directly relevant to better understanding human pathophysiology and psychiatric disease.